Download Connecting With People Where They Live

Women's Wear Daily
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MONDAY 11/29/04
Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Vol. 188, No. 114
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FRIDAY 11/26/04
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Wednesday December 1, 2004
Connecting With People Where
They Live
By Valerie Seckler
NEW YORK — By establishing a presence in
people’s everyday lives, fashion marketers can
shake off the stamp of sameness that curtails their
effectiveness in communicating with consumers.
A 13-page advertorial in Ellegirl’s
September edition formed the
foundation of the multimedia,
integrated campaign for DKNY Jeans.
“By starting out with the power of a great idea, and
extending it across different media, brands can
start to break out of the commoditization trap
they’ve fallen into,” said Bob Isherwood, Saatchi &
Saatchi’s worldwide creative director, in citing
product-focused fashion print ads he likened to a
blender in which everything is coming out the
same.
“We live in an and/and world,” Isherwood said. “It’s
not print versus other media; it’s a combination of
print and new media that can embrace the
consumer and develop a brand’s emotional
potential.”
Most fashion marketers have leaned for too long
on print advertising while consumers experience a
world marked by mounting advertising clutter —
one in which their media consumption has become
more fragmented. Some fashion brands, however,
are starting to launch integrated, multimedia
campaigns that are intended to connect with
people in different parts of their lives.
At Tag Heuer, that strategy will take root in
promotional events next spring, including one in
which people will be invited to the Indianapolis 500
as a guest of the luxury watch brand owned by
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
Alloy’s in-cinema kiosk in Irvine,
Calif. — one of about 550 theaters in
which Alloy will be targeting youths.
Because of the presence brand sponsorships can
create in people’s lives by associating brands with
events such as the Indy 500, brand loyalty
specialist Robert Passikoff believes they have
become more effective marketing vehicles than
print ads.
DKNY Jeans, Ellegirl and Alloy are
taking their fashion lab on the road to
41 malls this fall, one piece of a
multimedia marketing salvo.
“The trick is not to tell them how wonderful you are
as a brand; it’s to connect with them in their
everyday lives,” said Daniel Lalonde, president and
chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy
Louis Vuitton Watch and Jewelry North America.
“That’s a change this year,” he said of Tag Heuer’s
attempts to place the brand front and center in
people’s lives, a reflection of its integrated
marketing efforts begun around four years ago.
“We believe we have the most effective [marketing]
mix today — but in two years it won’t be the same,
because consumers won’t be the same as they are
today.”
In 2005, for instance, a combined 20 percent of
Tag’s media plan will be allocated to sponsorships
and public relations, up from 15 percent this year.
Another marketing platform emerging as a means
to establish a brand’s presence is in-cinema
advertising, from on-screen commercials preceding
movies to backlit showcases and kiosks in lobbies
and rest rooms. In a brand-to-media consonance
study by Brand Keys this year, 1,500 women ages
21 to 59 rated in-cinema ads as the most likely
medium to enhance their awareness and image of
fashion brands, as well as their likelihood of buying
them.
Alloy’s 360 Youth marketing unit, which targets
youths and young adults, is starting the first phase
of a rollout of in-cinema advertising vehicles in
most of Regal CineMedia’s 550 theaters. By
yearend the project is anticipated to result in the
installation of 565 backlit lobby showcases, 700
backlit lobby kiosks and 735 washroom ad panels,
in stalls and above urinals, across 200 theaters.
The 550 theaters, located in the country’s top 25
metropolitan markets, are used by about 350
million moviegoers annually. Roughly half are ages
24 or under, a primary point of appeal to Alloy,
whose focus is on marketing various products,
including apparel, to youths and young adults, said
Derek White, executive vice president and general
manager of media and marketing.
“Cinema advertising is largely unexploited,’’ White
said. “People are getting there well in advance of
movie times. It’s a big audience in an uncluttered
environment.”
In its joint venture with Regal, Alloy plans to
capitalize on the proximity of shopping venues to
the theaters with promotions such as the
redemption of ticket stubs for discounts at nearby
stores and coupons distributed through the ticket
window that can be redeemed at movie
concession stands for product samples.
Target is one of the companies with which Alloy
has been speaking about a possible in-cinema ad
deal, White said, noting the sales effort started in
September and there are a handful of Regal
theaters displaying ads. “Movies are a see-and-beseen scene for youths, which could [prove
attractive] for fashion brands,” White suggested.
The in-cinema advertising arrangements will carry
price tags from low six-figure deals to ones in
seven-figure country. “Fashion people would
typically spend a couple of hundred thousand
dollars,” White projected, adding seven-figure
deals would likely be inked by automotive,
packaged goods, wireless and beverage
companies.
Indeed, one reason more fashion brands haven’t
branched out farther beyond print advertising is the
high cost of other media. “Fashion companies are
[typically] spending about $5 million a year on
advertising,” estimated Neil Kraft, president of
KraftWorks, whose clients include Playtex, Hanes
Hosiery, Just My Size, In Style, Cointreau, and
Voss water. Kraft contends fashion brands with a
budget of $5 million or less would do best to stay
focused on print and outdoor ads, and possibly
some viral marketing. “North of $8 million, they can
think about whether they want to use TV and other
media,” Kraft counseled.
One fashion brand at the forefront of integrated
marketing campaigns aimed at getting up close
and personal with consumers has been DKNY,
whose DKNY Jeans label in September launched a
fall multimedia campaign with Ellegirl and Alloy.
The effort is based on the mutual desire of Ellegirl
and DKNY Jeans to extend their presence, with
Ellegirl seeking to reach more media consumers
and DKNY Jeans aiming to raise its visibility
among fashion-forward teens. “It gives us a
platform outside print, while preserving a fashion
identity,” said Ellegirl publisher Deborah Burns,
who pointed out it presents DKNY Jeans with an
opportunity to surround the consumer with its
brand. “The [campaign’s] 41-market mall tour is a
way to take the DKNY Jeans brand directly to the
consumer in a way we could not have done in a
magazine ad.”
Burns was referring to a series of DKNY
Jeans/Ellegirl Fashion Pavilion events this fall,
which are being mounted via Alloy’s partnership
with Simon Malls in 41 shopping centers
nationwide, including one staged at Brea Mall, in
Brea, Calif., Oct. 9 that featured a live performance
by recording artist Toby Lightman. The event will
be recapped in Ellegirl’s February issue.
A 13-page DKNY Jeans advertorial, “VideoGirl,”
published in the September issue of Ellegirl, forms
the foundation of the marketing effort, one that
features Lightman dressed in DKNY jeanswear and
portrayed in different phases of taping a music
video for her song “Real Love” — from a creative
meeting to wardrobe fitting and shooting, with
music video director Charles Jensen.
The advertorial extended an invitation to readers to
enter a sweepstakes whose grand prize winner will
become the next “VideoGirl,” winning an allexpenses paid trip early next year to go behind the
scenes of an upcoming video directed by Jensen.
The winner will also receive a DKNY Jeans
wardrobe and be featured on a page in an edition
of Ellegirl next spring documenting her experience.
Augmenting that print and experiential DKNY
Jeans campaign was an online component, which
included a “VideoGirl” microsite created by Alloy’s
360 Youth unit, accessed through ellegirl.com and
alloy.com. The DKNY Jeans fall collection was
featured on the microsite and was promoted in 50
schools this September, in media vehicles such as
ad boards owned by Alloy.
“A touchpoint for teens is music,” Burns said in
describing the basis of the music video experience.
“We like to inspire teens and challenge them.”
This is the second of two articles on alternative
marketing. The first appeared on Oct. 20.
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